Hello! New beekeeper here.I live in Santa Barbara California. I picked up my nuc in early April and they did a fast and fantastic job of filling up their first brood box in just two weeks. I added a second box and they are fast at work filling that one too!
Inspections have gone very well, lots of brood and beautiful comb. The 5 frames that came with my nuc were foundationless and fully drawn beautifully. All the frames I have added in the first brood box were also foundationless, but I switched to foundation frames for the second brood box, but checkered a few of the lower frames into the new box. One of the foundationless frames is being drawn out sort of funky and I’m not sure if I should remove the comb and have them rebuild it? How do I go about this if the frame has brood in it?
I have a frame feeder in the first brood box, I have been regularly filling it at each inspection, but they are bringing back lots of pollen on their own so I’m wondering if I should hold off on refilling it for a while? And if so, do I just leave the feeder in the box, or should I remove it and replace with a new frame?
Also, I have been cleaning my bottom tray weekly and today I noticed this white fluff. Upon further inspection, it looks almost like shredded fabric or paper? But I’m not sure. Curious if anyone has any insight.